HANOVER -- Seven-year Hanover Housing Authority board member Tom Burke is once again seeking re-election, and once again his name will not appear on the ballot.

Although Burke was appointed to the housing authority in 2006 by the electmen, he has never since run a traditional campaign, choosing instead to run write-in campaigns.

“It’s sort of a “Groundhog Day” experience,” Burke said.

Burke’s unorthodox election style is more a consequence of circumstance than choice.

“I am a strange case study of how things can work in small towns with volunteer politicians,” Burke said.

An appointed board member is only afforded a one-year term, so after Burke fulfilled his initial appointment, he prepared to run for a full term in 2007. When he didn’t file his candidacy papers in time, he launched his first write-in campaign and was successful, winning a five-year seat on the board. At the end of that term in 2012, Burke considered running for a different position in town, but decided against it at the last minute – again missing the candidacy-filing deadline.

“For that write-in campaign, I believed I was unopposed,” Burke said.

He lost by one vote to Jonathan Frattasio, who received six votes to Burke’s five. But Frattasion declined the seat, leading to Burke’s second appointment.

Last year Burke was appointed once again when the open housing authority seat was mistakenly left off last year’s municipal ballot.

This year there are two open housing authority seats on the ballot, one for a three-year term and another for a five-year term. Burke said he decided not to declare his candidacy after he and fellow incumbent Diane Campbell both took out nomination papers for the same seat.

“I wasn’t going to run against one of my fellow board members,” Burke said.

Burke, who is also a member of the Hanover Affordable Housing Trust, said this could be his last write-in campaign.

Burke said it would be his goal in the next year to work toward dissolving the housing authority, which was created in 1970 to create and manage the town’s affordable housing units.

Today, the authority only owns the land beneath Barstow Village and it doesn’t manage any finances. Burke said that Hanover’s affordable housing needs can be managed by the Affordable Housing Trust.

“It’s really just a streamlining and removing of unnecessary boards,” Burke said. “Smaller government is better.”